The term “Grande Complication” is increasingly used in the popular watch vernacular to describe any exceptionally complicated mechanism.  Technically however, it refers to a specific combination of complications.  To be exact, a Grande Complication watch is one which features a perpetual calendar, a split-seconds chronograph, and a minute repeater.  Such rare timepieces are among the loftiest achievements in the haute horlogerie repertoire, and the few companies who possess the knowledge to construct them can–by necessity–produce only a tiny handful per year. 

One such incredible watch, and perhaps the most well-known to enthusiasts and collectors today, is the Audemars Piguet Grande Complication.  Presented in models in both the Jules Audemars Collection and Royal Oak Collection, this Audemars Piguet masterpiece utilizes a self-winding masterpiece–the Caliber 2885, with its 654 hand-finished and decorated components.    

Even more complicated, because they also feature a tourbillon, are the legendary Blancpain 1735 watch and the equally extraodinary DeWitt Pressy Grande Complication watch.  While both are in platinum, and both are are among the most complex–and expensive–watches in the world, these two works of horological art do differ in many aesthetic details.  The Blancpain 1735 is self-winding, and has somewhat more classical subdial-type displays for its calendar indications, as well as an equally traditional moonphase indicator.  On the other hand, the DeWitt Pressy Grande Complication watch’s movement is manually wound.  While it doesn’t have a moonphase display, the Pressy does offer as a centerpiece an eye-catching retrograde indication for the day of the week, and the date.